TEATRO REAL OF MADRID PRESENTS:

LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN

Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)

MAY 17 – JUNE 21

In the new version of Les contes d’Hoffmann, by Jacques Offenbach, which will be presented to the public in Madrid, Nicklausse, the muse and alter ego of Hoffmann, sings: “On est grand par l’amour, mais plus grand par les pleurs” (One is enriched by love, but also by sadness). This it the main motif in the work by, “the ever cheerful Offenbach” and it appears in a work that is part of the same romantic movement that spans from Victor Hugo to Thomas Mann, passing by Berlioz. The common link between the work by these men is that art and inspiration come from the suffering and sadness in the world. This makes it the only opera by Offenbach in which art triumphs over the pain of love.

Opéra fantastique in five acts
Libretto by Jules Barbier, after the play by Barbier and Michel Carré, based on the stories of E.T.A. Hoffmann